


Skating Out Your Emotions

by Lazchan



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Gen, Mentions of Anxiety
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-24
Updated: 2017-03-24
Packaged: 2018-10-10 02:56:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10427592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lazchan/pseuds/Lazchan
Summary: Yuri is starting to wonder if he's reading too much into Yuuri when he'snotskating, but the longer he stays in Russia, the more he notices the differences off and on the ice.





	

**Author's Note:**

> More of the beginning of friendship between Yuri and Yuuri.

When Yuri entered the rink in the early hours of the morning, he had expected it to be empty. He was usually the first one that showed up to practice and he was startled to see the lights on and someone moving around the rink already.

 

He frowned when he saw it was Yuuri and he automatically looked around for Viktor, certain that they had chosen this early morning time to be all ….cuddly when no one was around. Oddly, though—the rink was empty of everyone except Yuuri and himself. Yuri wasn’t sure what to think of it, still. Yuuri being in Russia was an unknown factor in his life, something he wasn't sure of how to quantify and package away in his mind yet.

 

He watched him for awhile, it really was amazing what Yuuri could do when he thought no one was watching. There was a faint sound of music, a violin that stretched across the ice and Yuuri moved with seemingly effortless grace, eyes closed as he spun in place and glided with movements that looked as light as air.

 

Yuri chewed on his lower lip and once he felt Yuuri was in a position where he wouldn't take himself out if Yuri startled him, he cupped his hands over his mouth and shouted across the ice. "Hey! Just because you moved to Russia doesn't mean you get the rink all to yourself!"

 

Yuuri's eyes flew open and he dropped from the spin he was in to turn to face Yuri. Even from this distance, Yuuri's flushed, startled expression was visible and Yuri leaned across the rink board, smirking. Now that he wasn’t going to scare Yuuri into smacking his head on the ice and putting himself out of commission, Yuri felt it was safe to skate out onto the almost-empty rink, next to Yuuri.

 

"Ah—Yuri…" Yuuri placed his hands behind his back and gave him a faint smile. "I didn't expect anyone out here so early. Did I take your rink time? I need to learn to read everyone's names better so I don't take away anyone's scheduled time." His voice was upbeat and cheerful and little apologetic, but there was something _off_ about it that Yuri couldn’t quite place. "Viktor said it was fine, but sometimes he's forgetful…"

 

"He probably gave you his old rink time," Yuri snorted, crossing his arms over his chest, "and forgot that I took it over after he left. None of the others will get up this early." Yuuri was already skating away from him and Yuri reached out to grab his arm. "Where are you going?" he demanded.

 

Yuuri blinked at him in confusion and without his glasses, he looked absurdly young. "You said it was your skating time," he said slowly. "I was going to get off the rink and let you skate?"  He looked uncertain and Yuri rolled his eyes, keeping him where he was standing.

 

"The rink isn't that tiny where I'm going to worry about tripping over you," he stared at Yuuri, brow furrowing. Something was definitely wrong; his hand were twisting around each other and his gaze was moving around the rink. It wasn't even that he wasn't meeting Yuri's gaze, he wasn't settling on anything in particular.

 

"It's okay that I keep skating?" Yuuri asked, staring at him, the confusion still on his face, but tension seemed to leave his body as his arms dropped back to his sides and his posture looked more relaxed overall. "I really—I can always come back another time and arrange with my own skating time…"

 

"It's _fine_ ," Yuri snapped. "As long as you keep your eyes open so you don't crash into me while you're doing a jump or something, then I don't see what the problem is. We've both skated before on the ice with more than just two skaters during warm ups." He was annoyed and more snappish than he planned to be; something was off about Yuuri and it annoyed him he couldn't figure it out.

"No—" Yuuri seemed to read more into the tone than was warranted and pulled off Yuri's hand when the chance arose. "I think I'm good until practice later on." He was off before Yuri could stop him and while he was alone on the ice and able to do any jumps and spins he wanted to without anyone in the way, he somehow felt as if he had missed something important.

~

 

When Yuuri was skating, there was no tension in his body; even if he wasn't doing anything as intricate as he had been doing in the morning. It was as it always was in the  practices and even having Yuuri there didn't throw him off as much as it had in the beginning. It helped that he had already been used to skating with Yuuri in the same rink and training beside him, even if it had only been temporary. Still…because he knew how Yuuri practiced…

 

When it came time for their break, Yuri decided to hang back and watch Mila tease Yuuri.  He didn't look as relaxed as before and it couldn't be because of _Mila._ She had snatched him up faster than anyone could protest and made him her 'new project'. Even if she was younger than Yuuri by a few years, she had decided to take him under her wing and make him as comfortable as possible.

 

Even Viktor draping himself over Yuuri didn't relax the line of his shoulders, even with the fond smile and Yuuri shooing Viktor away to do his own skating. Yuuri's eyes were trained on Viktor and Yuri wanted to roll his eyes at the way Yuuri was staring at his fiancée dancing around the ice. The glint of sun on metal caught his eyes and he stared at Yuuri's hands, they way they were twisting around each other again, much like they had before.

 

It was a series of balances, Viktor-training and Coach-Viktor and Yuri snorted as he came up beside Yuuri, hoping he could goad him into admitting something. Maybe it was simple as him being clingy over Viktor being just his coach, but the past few weeks had Yuuri staring avidly and without the wishy-washy, nervous expressions like now. "Worried he's going to beat you, katsudon?" he kept his voice just shy of annoyance, hoping Yuuri could pick up the teasing tone enough to _relax_.

 

Yuuri turned to him with a snort. "He's going to have to work for it," he said, expression determined. "Coach or fiancée or not, I'm not just going to hand things over to him because he's _Viktor_. I want to win, too."

 

Yuri grinned a little; he had been worried that the hero-worship would cloud Yuuri's judgment, but it seemed he'd gotten that wrong and he was relieved. "You're going to have to beat me for it, too," he pointed out. "Just because you won silver and got a world record doesn't mean you can skate easily. _I_ won the gold, after all."

 

"And Viktor still has the overall that we both have to beat," Yuuri laughed and he seemed to be relaxing a little more, but his hands were tense, still, wrapped around the edges of the rink and something about the tone of it made Yuri think of when he first met Yuuri, of a barely held together edge of panic after Yuri had called him out on his blubbering.

 

"Damn straight, we can't let the old man go out and keep that record to himself," Yuri declared. "Knock him off the podium." He made a great show of being magnanimous. "I'll even let that shithead JJ take the bronze so that you can have silver."

 

"And let me guess, you're taking gold again?" Yuuri asked, flicking his gaze towards Yuri again. His breathing was measured, each word carefully pushed out and while it sounded light-hearted and teasing, there was a faint _push_ behind the words.

 

"Of course," Yuri pushed his hair back, not calling Yuuri out on it, just making it seem as if he didn't notice anything, making everything completely normal for Yuuri. He wasn't good at this sort of thing and the longer he stood next to Yuuri and saw the panic and need to escape rising in his eyes, the more he wished Viktor would stop his skating and come back to Yuuri and fix it. "We're both better than the old man, but I'm still going to kick your ass, especially now that I can see what you can do up close."

 

"I always can find a few surprises to catch you off guard with," Yuuri laughed and something seemed to bleed out of his expression and whatever it was had passed for the moment. "I still dance better than you," he poked Yuri's side, earning a smack and an outraged glare. "You can jump better, but you still can't beat me in performance points."

 

"Yeah, you were meant to dance all over the ice," Yuri snorted and that was it—that was exactly what it was. "Why don't you just switch to ice dancing and leave the real competing to the rest of us?" Yuuri skated when he wanted to get out whatever emotions were stuffed up inside that head of his. He hadn't seen Yuuri cry since Sochi; even if he had been a zombie without Viktor and crashing from being on the top and everyone's gaze pinned to him. Still, he wasn't going to let Yuuri see that he figured it out. Teasing was the way to go—it would hide that he was actually _noticing_ things about his rival and possibly even _caring._ That was Viktor's job.

 

"Please, you'd miss me trying to beat your scores," Yuuri laughed. "Do you really just want people like JJ on the ice with you?" It wasn't a fair comparison at all; Leo and Guang-Hong and Phichit and Otabek were also strong and fierce skaters. They had all medaled at some point or another, but Yuuri was smirking over at him. He knew which buttons of Yuri's to push as well and Yuri relaxed that Yuuri seemed to be slipping back to his old self again.

 

_Good. I won't have to hear Viktor blubber over Yuuri being all mopey and him not being there to hold katusdon's hand the entire time._ Still, he would talk to Yuuri about it later—when they weren't in public, when people wouldn't try and think that he cared about the idiot skater that had found a spot in the Russian rink. It wouldn't do   _at all_ to have them think that Yuuri Katsuki was meeting his high standards for friendship.

 

"Yeah, you're going to have to work harder than before, then," Yuri's scathing words were only half-hearted as he pushed Yuuri towards the ice again. That was the last thing that was needed, he and Viktor switched places and there was only a brief moment of Viktor squeezing Yuuri's hand. There was an exchange of looks and understanding and Yuri was relieved to know that he wasn't the only one that spotted the relief in Yuuri's expressions to be skating again.

 

Yuri relaxed next to Viktor, handing him a bottle of water as Yuuri took to the ice again, his movements open and free and more like he had skated in the dark of the morning. This was more of what Yuuri was about; this freedom with skating and Yuri bit his lip and looked away. Maybe it wasn’t for the same reasons or the same results, but he and Yuuri were alike in that way.

 

Skating allowed them to express what they couldn't in words.


End file.
